Lower Decks
by CharacterFlaws
Summary: Based on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Links NPCs. It's the year after Jaden and the gang graduated, and Duel Academy is struggling to operate after the events of the past four years. A new villain arrives on the Island, but can first years Logan, Zachary, Kylie, and Evan step up to become competent heroes?
1. Chapter 1

1

A ruffling of papers. Wood scraping against wood. Gentle footsteps across plush carpeting. Logan's senses slowly informed him that someone else was in the room with him. He felt torn between pulling the comforter over his head, like he did as a small child and was worried that a monster like Dark Necrofear or Gimmick Puppet Shadow Feeler was going to burst out of his closet and eat him, and making a dive for the lamp on the nightstand to confront the intruder directly. He took mental stock of how much of a coward he was and came up somewhat disappointed.

"Oh—hey, I didn't mean to wake you."

Logan, while grateful he no longer needed to come up with a workable plan on his own now, was absolutely terrified. Wait, should he answer or pretend he was still sleeping after all? Too many choices, this was too much to deal with right now. He took a deep breath, deciding to let the flow of whatever the hell was happening carry him along. This person couldn't be too dangerous with that high-pitched, whiny voice could they? And the guy did sound genuinely sorry for disturbing him. He leaned over and switched on the lamp, not so much a 'diving' motion as a deliberate and, he hoped, casual gesture.

Light filled his Ra Yellow dorm room, illuminating his mid-range furniture, mid-length nice carpet, mid-tier entertainment system, everything completely in the middle and average like a proper Ra should be. But standing in the corner next to his desk was something decidedly not mid-anything.

It was a Slifer Red.

The other boy had short shaggy brown hair and abnormally large brown eyes. Logan thought he looked like a puppy that got kicked one too many times and was turned into a human who looked vaguely like a puppy by some genie. He was holding some papers in his hand which Logan recognized as his schoolwork and the folder containing Ra dorm etiquette and rules. Settling his gaze on the folder, he tried to remember if there was anything in there about what to do if someone broke into your dorm. He certainly didn't want to mishandle the situation and end up in trouble or demoted or something.

"What are you doing in my room?" He asked, praying this question was middle-of-the-road enough to not offend his placement in the world.

Strangely, the Slifer's eyes lit up at the question. It was like he waited his entire life for someone to take an interest in him and now that moment had at long last come. "I'm Evan!" He nearly shouted at Logan, bowing awkwardly. "Evan Suzuki. I'm just looking through your stuff."

"Yes, I can see that," Logan now wondered if his assessment that this person wasn't dangerous was entirely accurate. This Evan guy was small enough that he could overpower him if things got physical, but, being a Ra, he was supposed to deescalate situations before they got that far. So deescalate he would do. "I'm Logan Nakajima—"

"I know!" Evan appeared quite pleased with himself. "I mean, I did break into your room, you'd think I have some idea of who you were. Oh, maybe you can tell me a secret instead. You know, something I wouldn't come across just by going through your most personal possessions."

Logan pulled the blanket up protectively, despite himself. "About that…" he started, unsure he wanted to know the answer. Had he even seen this student before? He certainly didn't look familiar, and anyone with those… doll-like eyes would surely stand out as someone to be wary of. "Why exactly are you in my room, Evan?" He read somewhere once that police would use the names of suspects holding hostages to achieve a more personal connection with them, so they felt more comfortable talking to them and would be distracted enough for the sniper team to take them out. He briefly entertained the idea that someone was outside his window waiting for an opportunity for Evan to be off-guard to crash through the glass and tackle him. He hoped so.

Evan waved the stack of papers in the air vaguely, allowing a few to fall to the floor. He didn't seem to notice or care. "Just looking around. I wanted to take a peek at your deck to see what cards you were using, and your homework. Not to cheat off you or anything," he quickly clarified, raising his hands innocently in front of him. "I just want to get into the minds of Ra students. You know, promotion preparation exams are coming up soon and I want to get out of Slifer."

"And you think this will help?"

"Sure!" Evan smiled widely. He let his backpack slide off his shoulder and placed it on top of Logan's desk chair before unzipping it and shoving a couple papers inside that Logan couldn't identify from this distance. "I firmly believe this with absolutely no proof. That's why I've spent the last several weeks systematically breaking into all the Ra dorm rooms. I think I've learned a lot but I guess we'll just have to see next week, right? I'm tired all the time from not sleeping at night but that should be fine. Hey, we still have a few hours before breakfast. Do you mind if I hang out and eat here with you?"

Logan's mind was struggling to keep up with the information dump he just received. This kid broke into how many other rooms? Why didn't he get caught yet? Should Logan report him? He was beginning to wish he could take a look at that etiquette and rules book but he was pretty certain that was one of the things Evan was currently zipping inside his book bag.

"Why can't you just eat at your own dorm?" He asked.

Evan sat down at the edge of the bed and leaned forward, getting a better look at Logan's DVD collection that was situated on a short bookcase underneath his wall-mounted television. "I have permanent food poisoning from the food there."

"Permanent—"

Evan snatched a box from the rows of DVDs. "You have _Ponytail wa Furimukanai_? That's my favorite TV drama, let's watch it until the cafeteria opens." Without waiting for a response, he popped open the box set and selected a disc at what seemed like random before putting it into the DVD player. He acted like he'd been in Logan's room dozens of times, like they were friends, which frightened Logan somewhat. Maybe this wasn't the first time he'd been in here while he was asleep? Then again, Logan was a light sleeper so he surely would have heard all the racket Evan was barely trying not to make.

Once Evan started the episode he wanted, somewhere in the middle of the season, Logan started feeling deeply uncomfortable again. He tried focusing on the show, for lack of knowing a better course of action, but Evan's tendency to mouth the words all the characters said was a little off-putting. Eventually, the strangeness of his situation dissipated and he found himself relaxing into _Ponytail's_ plot line, he even found himself sitting on the edge of the bed as well, albeit a safe distance from his companion. After two episodes, the clock on his night table informed him that it was sufficiently late enough for breakfast.

Evan excitedly turned off the TV and returned the DVD to its proper place before coaxing Logan into leaving his dorm without showering or combing his hair first. The two made their way down the stairs and through a series of corridors, Evan talking animatedly about the episodes they just watched and how he should have been alive in the 80s so he could have enjoyed the series while it was still on the air, along with other nonsense Logan barely paid attention to. He was too preoccupied trying to figure out how fast someone suffering from "permanent food poisoning" could run if he booked it, and whether Evan's nightly adventures into the Ra dorm taught him where the cafeteria was located.

The latter question was answered when Evan enthusiastically began leading the way, walking a step ahead of Logan while still going on about whether the 80s smelled as bad as he thought they did.

"So… Evan." Logan started, suddenly realizing he didn't know how to finish. Really, he just didn't want to hear any more about what olfactory nightmare hairspray, cocaine, and dirty streets could combine to form. The two grabbed their garish yellow trays and moved up in line, allowing Logan to pick up his favorite breakfast foods of natto and ume boshi with a side of vegetables. Beside him, Evan loaded his tray with green tea, toast, and miso soup. "What… kind of deck do you use?"

He flinched a little at how inane of a question this ended up being. Granted, they were at Duel Academy, where a student's chosen archetype could tell a lot about them as a person, but he prided himself on being more intellectual and deep than this. Also, he was making casual conversation with the person who woke him from a very pleasant dream about Naturia monsters singing comforting show tunes, surely there were better topics to bring up. Like why he was chosen to be victimized by this potentially insane person.

To his surprise, Evan looked downcast. "Oh. Well, right now I'm using a combination Kuriboh and wormlike creatures." Logan guided him to his favorite place to eat, the only table situated perpendicular to the lunch line and pressed against the farthest wall. Only a few other people ever ate there, considering only one side was usable, so Logan usually had plenty of quiet to review notes before class at breakfast, or between classes during lunch, or after classes during dinner. He had a Ra's reputation to uphold after all.

"Kuriboh and… wormlike creatures?" He repeated, flabbergasted. "How does that even work?"

Evan picked at his toast forlornly. "The professors say that it doesn't. I haven't won a duel with it since the entrance exams."

"You actually brought that to entrance exams and passed?" Logan nearly dropped the chopsticks he was holding into his natto.

"Sure did!" Evan looked up proudly, changing emotions as rapidly as a puppy — only lending credence to Logan's evil genie theory. "It was one heck of a comeback victory too. The Proctor was winning by 3900 life points and had all these high level dragons on the field. This was the day the air conditioning went out at Kaiba Tower so it was really hot in there. Super hot! We were both really uncomfortable and when my next turn came, the Procter passed out from heat exhaustion. I guess his duel disk malfunctioned or something because when he hit the ground his life points went to zero. Doctor Crowler wasn't certain how to proceed since there was no precedent so he called Chancellor Shepherd, who called Seto Kaiba himself, to figure out whether I should retake the test with a Proctor who wasn't on his way to the hospital. Mr Kaiba apparently told Shepherd that KaibaCorp technology doesn't malfunction so they had to let the result stand."

"I… see…"

"Of course, I didn't even want to use that deck for my entrance exams but I wasn't allowed to bring my normal deck."

Logan knew he would regret this: "What would that be?"

"Twenty-five Unhappy Maidens and ten Zone Eaters." Yes, Logan regretted this immensely. "I won't tell you what the other five cards were, those are my little secret. Anyway, I contacted Industrial Illusions about my desire to run more than three copies but they said in legal games I wasn't allowed. So I had to throw this new deck together on short notice."

Logan finished as much of his meal that he would be able to stomach after the morning he had. According to his watch, there were only ten minutes left before his first class began which meant there was no time to wash away all the horrible memories this conversation was sure to give him. With luck, at least, this Evan kid would move onto some other hapless soul tonight, preferably someone who lived on a different floor from himself, and he'd absolutely never need to deal with him or his borderline psychotic ramblings again. As he stood to leave, giving Evan a polite bow, he thanked any god that existed that they didn't have any classes together and the chances of Evan ever advancing to Ra Yellow were less than that volcano erupting and killing everyone on the island.

"Leaving so soon?" Evan asked, evidently not in a hurry himself. He still had most of his food uneaten on his tray in front of him, having spent all this time talking.

"Yes, I have class and I'd be remiss if I were late the first time this semester." Logan gathered his backpack and turned to leave when Evan's voice behind him said something that ran his blood cold. If that were physically possible, which is very much wasn't without some kind of advanced alien technology and without killing the person.

"Alright see you later, best friend!"


	2. Chapter 2

2

When Logan arrived at class he made a beeline for Professor Sartyr, who was standing at the front of the room looking through the day's lesson plan. Professor Sartyr, a Spanish man who moved to Japan many years before to get a degree in Duel Monsters, was Ra Yellow's headmaster and one of the best cooks on the island, although he infrequently dabbled in food preparation after the apparently traumatic realization that there was more cereal than people on Earth. Logan approached him apprehensively; he always got anxious during one-to-one interactions with professors, worried that singling himself out was something an ordinary student would not aspire to do.

"Sartyr-sensei?" He asked, adjusting the strap of his book bag on his shoulder.

"Ah yes," the professor smiled down at him, speaking in his thick accent that doesn't translate well into writing. "What can I do for one of my students?"

Logan looked down at the floor. "I um, I need another rules and etiquette book. Something happened to mine and I don't have it any more."

There was a long pause. Logan reluctantly raised his gaze to meet Sartyr's, who looked down disapprovingly at him. "That is not how a Ra student asks for what he needs," he lectured, waving a finger at Logan as though he were a much younger, misbehaving child.

"How am I supposed to—"

"Section four, Article nine point nine six two," Sartyr almost sneered, his strange little mustache dancing on his face. "Look it up in your rules and etiquette book and then come back and ask me when you can speak to me like a proper middle of the road, completely average and uninspiring but adequate student."

"But sir, I can't—"

"Take your seats, students!" The professor raised his voice enough to be heard over the idle chatter of the rest of the class, which had filled up since the conversation began. Logan sighed inwardly and started on his way up the aisle of stairs to his assigned seat near the center of the room. He brushed past several Slifers and other Ras, apologizing to each and every one of them until he found himself interrupting his own apologies for other apologies.

Kylie Tanaka and Zachary Akiyama, Obelisk Blue students and the closest people Logan had to friends, were already getting out their pens and notebooks when Logan finally plopped down dejectedly into his chair beside Kylie. Zachary, sitting on the other side of her, leaned forward to get a better look at Logan, who still hadn't even removed his book bag. "What's wrong with wizkid?" He asked alliteratively.

Logan glanced over. "Just a bad morning," he mumbled, not really in the mood to get into a conversation about Evan. He had a feeling Kylie would take the 'new best friend' bit personally anyway and placating her was just not something he needed right now.

"How could you possibly have a bad day when it's so so so lovely out?" Kylie chimed in, her side-ponytail bobbing in the air. Anyway, that's what Logan thought it was supposed to be; instead it looked like she got distracted doing her hair halfway through and just… stopped. "I had the best walk this morning, I saw the coolest squirrel—"

"Did you see the pro duel last night on DMTV?" Zachary interrupted. He had already heard about the squirrel.

Logan shook his head, finally seeing fit to start preparing for class before the other half of the students beat him to it. "I had too much homework to bother with TV," he said, when in reality he had been busy learning how to make a card fort with his Duel Monsters cards. It didn't go as well as when he tried using regular playing cards, leading him to conclude that Duel Monsters cards were for dueling with and throwing at bad guys only. He had to keep up appearances as a Ra, though, so lying to his friends about frivolous details they wouldn't care about was sometimes necessary.

Kylie's eyes widened. "How could you possibly miss a duel? I mean, of course you have to miss some duels, there's probably thousands going on around the world at any given moment, but if I had one superpower it would be to see all the duels. All the time."

As per usual, Zachary pretended she hadn't been talking. Logan was grateful his friend's manners were so bad, since he himself usually let Kylie assault his senses without interfering and she could really go on for a while. It got repetitive, yes, as there was a good chance she simply ran out of things to say but refused to stop talking without external pressure to do so. "Chazz Princeton versus Jaden Yuki for the first time since they graduated last year and you didn't see it? Bull."

"That was last night?" Logan may have learned an important lesson about card usage the night before, but it wasn't worth what he'd lost. "Who won? Not Yuki again?"

"_Princeton,_" Zachary said emphatically, leaning forward heavily on his desk. He raised his eyebrows proudly, shrinking his large forehead slightly. "One of Obelisk's very own."

"Not really," Logan corrected. "I mean, he spent most of his time as a Slifer—"

"One of Obelisk's," Zachary raised his voice slightly. It was usually best to let him have his way when he acted like this. "Very own."

Professor Sartyr began the day's lecture then on card and duel disk safety, which, Logan heard, was a new class this year. He turned away from Zachary to pay attention and take notes, marveling at how obsessed his friend was with dorm rank. Although Logan supposed he couldn't blame him that much, considering Zachary scored second lowest in duel prep before transferring to Duel Academy, ahead of only Kylie who was just happy to be there. If students who managed to graduate duel prep didn't automatically get placed in Obelisk he probably would have ended up in Ra or maybe Slifer. Logan hadn't seen Zachary duel much, but what he saw wasn't anything to be impressed with. Usually, he just chipped slowly away at his opponent's life points a few hundred at a time, but he was competent enough to win around half the time — although Obelisks were typically expected to get a better rate than that, which Logan always found counterintuitive since inter-dorm duels were the norm so _someone_ had to be losing. He glanced over at his two friends and realized that _someone_ was probably them.

The class dragged as it usually did — unsurprisingly a course on basic safety for first years involved a lot of repetition, although the student's interest always piqued whenever Sartyr got to an example of improperly used equipment, which sometimes involved graphic details and PowerPoint slides of injuries that they'd needed parental permission slips to view.

When the day's lecture finally ended, Sartyr cleared his throat. "Alright, my students. I'm sure you're all aware that we lost two professors last year, Kouji Stein and Thelonious Viper. Duel Academy has mourned for them, but now it is time to move on. Many of you have holes in your course load where their classes would have been in your schedules, and I'm pleased to inform you that our Chancellor and teaching staff finally managed to put together a new curriculum for you. We do apologize that it's coming so late in your semester but I can assure you that it won't affect the trajectory of your learning. These will be relatively quick programs of study. So if everyone who normally has a free period next, please stay behind for your new class." With that, the professor bowed his head and collected his binders before heading out the door.

Logan narrowed his eyes as most of the other students picked up their bags and followed Sartyr out into the hallway. He, Zach, and Kylie were apparently among those taking the new class, which tore Logan between being upset that there'd be no more mid-day hanging out with his crew in the schoolyard and wanting to be a good Ra Yellow student eager to learn something Duel Academy evidently never taught before.

Doctor Crowler, the one professor at the school who insisted on being referred to with the title despite most of them having PhDs in dueling (a newer program at most Japanese universities) stormed into the room, his arms full of poorly stacked paperwork. He was muttering under his breath about having enough students to teach as it is without adding something brand new and generally cursing Shepherd, careless that his students could hear.

A few Slifers and Ras filtered in through the door after him, finding seats near the front of the room. Logan was dismayed to see Evan Suzuki among them. The two made brief eye contact and Evan gave Logan a small wave, but fortunately chose to sit in the seat nearest the entrance rather than making his way to the now empty desk next to Logan. Logan let out a sigh of relief, glad that he wouldn't need to try explaining whatever the deal was with his 'new best friend' to Kylie and Zach.

"Alright you ungrateful brats," Crowler seemed too exhausted to put a lot of venom in his words for once. He placed himself at the lectern in front of the chalkboard and stood up straight, showcasing his excellent posture that Logan always admired. "And Obelisks." His inexplicably purple lips twisted into a small grin, then went right back into a disapproving scowl. "Welcome to Monster Attack Names, the most recent event in a series of crap I've had to put up with this year. Your field test instructors informed us higher-ups at Duel Academy that the student body is apparently lacking in basic knowledge of what you should be shouting at the top of your lungs above the growling noises your holograms make before pretending to kill one another. So that's where I come in, apparently. So let's just get through this together and try not to give good ol' Doctor Crowler an aneurysm."

Zachary scoffed. "Attack Names? Is the school board really that desperate to find something about Duel Monsters to teach us?"

"Normally I'd yell at you for your insolence," Crowler replied pointedly. "But today I'm just going to give you a perfect grade on the next pop quiz."

Zachary looked positively ecstatic at this thought.

"Which will be right now," Crowler continued, pulling a stack of papers out of one of his binders. He plopped it down on Evan's desk so he could get his own and pass it onto the next student. "I want to see what kind of deficiency I'm working to correct here. You may leave once you're done; we'll start regular lessons tomorrow after I've graded your work. Once I finish with my other four classes," he added stormily.

Logan passed the thinning stack of quizzes to Kylie and looked down at the paper. The quiz looked simple enough, with a list of around twenty monsters with blank spaces behind each name. He picked up his pen and started diligently working on the questions. Ancient Gear Golem would be Mechanized Melee, Volcanic Doomfire had Volcanic Cannon… Beetron-1 Beetletop. Hmm. He was pretty certain that wasn't even a real card. He took an educated guess using a beetle related pun and moved on, finding the answers becoming progressively more difficult to supply. Feeling discouraged, he glanced over at Kylie and Zachary, noticing the latter was playing with his pencil with his feet up on the desk not even bothering to read his quiz. Logan shook his head slightly, then resumed his own efforts.

As soon as he filled out the final question, he sensed someone standing next to him. He looked up to see Evan, staring down at him with intense disinterest. It was bizarre. "Do you know the attack name of Kuribandit?"

Logan narrowed his eyes. That wasn't on the quiz. "Um, no. I don't think it even has one. Kuribohs aren't really offensive monsters."

Evan looked dejectedly down at the ground. He seemed so sad that Logan almost felt guilty for making him look that way, he could have just made up something after all, but he reminded himself that he didn't want anything to do with this strange person with an uncanny ability to break into people's rooms. Speaking of, should he report that? Damn, he never needed that rules and etiquette book until it was gone. He opened his mouth to ask—_tell_— Evan to give it back when the Slifer's eyes met his coldly.

"No."

With that, Evan turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Logan with yet another question he knew he would never get an answer to.

"Why are you in your pajamas anyway?" Zachary asked from behind him. He was evidently done imagining that everyone was envious of his ability to get out of a single pop quiz, although the possibility of lording it over someone, someday, would probably keep him in a good mood the rest of the afternoon.

Logan looked down at his clothes, realizing he was indeed wearing his yellow t-shirt and school-issued blue and white pajama pants. He was somewhat surprised Professor Sartyr hadn't reprimanded him for it, honestly. "I had a long morning. Do you know that kid who was just here?"

"Evan Suzuki!" Kylie supplied, smiling wide. "We have Dueling Psychology together! We were partners in a presentation about psyching out your opponent by setting Polymerization and equip cards that aren't applicable to any monsters you have on the field. Or in your deck! I don't even have fusion monsters in mine, but—"

"Kylie, we need to go," Zachary unceremoniously dumped his possessions into his bag and stood up, gesturing for her to lead the way out.

"Right! Bye, Logan!"

Logan watched the two of them leave as he settled more comfortably into his chair to await his next professor's arrival.


	3. Chapter 3

3

"Be careful!" Zachary lightly grabbed Kylie's elbow to lead her away from a large crack in the hallway floor. The main building was looking a bit worse for wear after being transported to a sandy other-dimension the year before, apparently taking a bit of a beating in the sandstorms and whatever kind of weather phenomena were in dimensions he'd never heard of. He wondered briefly if there was one where blood spewing out of the earth in chunks was as common as gentle rain showers here, but he pushed that thought out of his mind. Blood was organic, so whatever was bleeding underground would just eventually die anyway and then that would be the end of that.

The two of them had just finished classes for the day and met up in their usual place near a statue of Red-Eyes Black Dragon on the second floor hallway so they could walk to dinner together. Kylie was busy going on about everything she learned that day, which annoyed Zachary when she was talking about classes they shared — which was most of them — but helped him feel prepared for future classes he had yet to take. The girl had an extraordinary memory, and was able to condense hours of roundabout lecturing into punchy, concise details that she delivered with her characteristic enthusiasm. If only she could slow down enough for him to take it all in; he realized long ago that she could talk a lot faster than he could listen.

They were almost out of the front doors when Doctor Crowler emerged from an adjacent hall, looking haggard and irritable. "Akiyama! Tanaka! You two don't look busy."

"We're walking," Zachary looked over at Kylie, who didn't appear half as annoyed as he felt. "How can you tell we're not doing something important?"

As usual, Crowler went on as though he didn't say anything. "KaibaCorp has seen fit to tear down the abandoned dorm — at long last if you ask me. The staff went through the building and separated out some things that we want to keep on hand, text books, marker boards, projectors, and the like. Won't the two of you be the exemplary Obelisks you are and move these items into the Obelisk basement? It's where there's the most storage space."

"You want us to carry crap all the way from the abandoned dorm?" Zachary demanded, voice raising in anger. "That's a twenty minute walk!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Crowler waved his hand dismissively. "It's been done already. You can find the boxes in Miss Dorothy's truck, she very kindly let us use it for this purpose. It's parked in front of Obelisk's main entrance. Thank you _so much_, students!"

Without waiting for a response, he brushed past them and walked into the janitor's closet. Zachary heard strange noises emit from behind the door before it went quiet.

Zachary sighed loudly. "We'll do it, but I'm eating first," he told Kylie, who was still standing there with her usual vacant expression. He gave up a long time ago asking for her opinion on anything negative that was happening around her: he assumed she chose to suppress it until one glorious day when her smile faded and she razed the foundations of everything anyone ever held dear. It would be truly horrifying. In some ways, he looked forward to that.

The pair made the short journey to the main entrance of the Obelisk Blue dorms — more accurately described these days as Obelisk Mostly White Again. The students involved in the effort to remain after the White Dorm incident had either done a terrible paint job or used low-quality paint, or both, because the deep royal blue of the palatial roofs was flaking off in large chunks, leaving the building a mostly blindingly white hue. Zachary had seen photos from before the White transformation, and Obelisk sure as hell didn't vaguely resemble the next Abandoned Dorm. Which it now did.

Miss Dorothy's truck was indeed parked outside on the widest part of the footpath, where vehicles probably weren't intended to drive. Walking past, Zachary could see some boxes and lumpy objects covered in a white sheet in the back. It looked like a lot of stuff, maybe if he had other friends he could manipulate them into helping them out then renege on his end of the deal to help them with something once it was all said and done.

Dinner went smoothly, with Kylie rambling about how excited she was for the upcoming dorm placement practice exams, which were like the PSATs but for dueling and they had no idea what the SATs were, until two girls approached their table with their arms folded across their chests.

"Oh Kylie, sweetie," Madison Saitou sneered down at her. "You know, now that Duel Academy is putting girls like Blair Flannigan in Slifer, you'd better learn to duel. If you're not careful the next promotion exams could send your spastic, fourth-rate duelist ass to the Red dorm."

Zachary clenched his mouth shut. He knew better than to take Saitou's bait, she had a tendency to turn herself into the victim the second a professor came into earshot and he'd gotten into enough trouble lately.

"Isn't that right, Alyssa?"

Alyssa Hayashi, the other girl disrupting their previously pleasant and bitch-free meal, was Saitou's best friend. Hayashi usually didn't put her heart into bullying people the way Saitou did. During duel prep, Hayashi was often the one trying to pull her friend away from a crying younger student after she'd gone too fair, but lately the pressure of being an Obelisk seemed to get the better of her and she felt obligated to harass people she was told to view as inferior. She gestured at Kylie's hair nonchalantly. "You look like a fern is growing out of the side of your head?" Her voice sounded uncertain, like she was asking a genuine question in the guise of trying to make someone cry.

So she's still no good at it, Zachary concluded.

Kylie's expression didn't change during the interaction. It continued to not change as she abruptly jumped onto her chair and swept every tray, cup, book, and card off the lunchroom table she and Zachary were seated at and pulled out her deck, slamming it onto the table with the force of a Brock Lesnar suplex. "Let's duel, Madison. You, me. Prison rules. Right now."

Zachary was tempted to hide his face with his hand but knew it would be an exercise in futility: only he would be dumb enough to eat next to Kylie Tanaka, best known spazz of Duel Academy. "Kylie, sit _down_!" He hissed, reaching up to pull at her boot — the only part of her he could reach.

Saitou had the decency to look positively disturbed by this display. "What are prison rules—" she started when Kylie whipped out what looked like a handmade shank and some crumpled high-currency yen. Saitou's grey eyes widened. She looked like she was about to call Kylie insane or something equally true when Hayashi grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her away, whispering something about learning how to pick her battles.

"Darn," Kylie looked dangerously close to being sad as she watched the two girls disappear into the crowd. She shoved her deck, money, and contraband weapon back into whatever pocket she got them from and plopped down in her chair next to Zachary.

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze. "How about we have a pickup duel later?" He forced a smile, knowing that she was just going to win again. She always did, and usually he didn't like putting himself through such a thorough and humiliating loss — he preferred the merely _mostly _one-sided humiliating losses the other Obelisks delivered — but this seemed like one of the rare times she needed cheering up and he could actually do something about it.

Kylie perked up immediately. "Sure! But let's get that stuff done for Doctor Crowler first." She leaned down and picked up some vegetable off the floor that was no longer recognizable and absentmindedly started chewing at one end.

Outside, Zachary and Kylie found Miss Dorothy unloading a large box and placing it gingerly on the ground. The sun was starting to set, casting an orange glow over the small body of water in front of the dorms, which Zachary always failed to determine if it was a pond or a lake or something else.

"Hey kids," Dorothy greeted them, struggling to right herself. "I need my truck back and you were taking a while so I took it upon myself to get started."

"Sorry about that, Miss Dorothy," Kylie apologized.

"It's alright. I put a few things downstairs already, mostly lighter stuff thanks to my bad back. You'll find it all in the stairwell."

Zachary took the initiative removing the rest from the truck bed before he and Kylie waved Miss Dorothy good-bye and they divided up the boxes to ensure this would be a one-trip ordeal. It was already late enough and Zachary had plenty of homework to consider doing tonight on top of what would probably be a five-turn or less game with Kylie.

To his surprise, Miss Dorothy appeared to have done the majority of the work for them, and certainly not the lighter things. There were a couple large classroom projectors from the '90s propped up against one wall next to the basement entrance, as well as some five-foot tall dismantled pieces of dented up marker boards. Kylie moved ahead on the way down the wooden stairs, then balanced the load of boxes she was carrying on one hip as she forced the thick, beaten door open to let Zachary pass her and enter the basement proper.

Considering the Obelisk Blue dorm had the largest and most lavish grounds to maintain, the corner nearest to the entrance of the long concrete room consisted of groundskeeper's tools like wire cutters, weed whackers, and garden hoses that had to be kept from the students to prevent projectile water-based shenanigans. These things, along with a riding lawn mower that shouldn't have even found its way down the narrow stairs to begin with, were situated between the wall and caged in storage units that ran down both sides of the room. Each one contained dusty looking boxes and school equipment and their own padlocks, although the majority of the locks hung loosely open. Zachary supposed they would have free rein of where the Abandoned Dorm's stuff would go, since there didn't seem to be a place designated for them yet.

He made his way over to the nearest chain-link unit that wasn't locked and set the boxes he was carrying inside while Kylie hung outside the basement door arranging the next batch. "Oh!" She exclaimed, causing Zachary to race out to see what was wrong, letting the metal door of the storage unit slam behind him with a clang.

"What's wrong?"

Kylie put her hand over her face, clearly embarrassed about something. "I'm sorry, it startled me."

Zachary looked over at the wall she was facing, noticing for the first time a tall mannequin against the wall. It must have been hidden behind one of the large marker boards.

"It makes me feel the opposite way dueling does," Kylie said from next to him, much more softly than he'd ever heard her speak in the three years they'd known each other.

"Yeah."

The mannequin was similar to a dress mannequin, made of flesh-colored cloth, but it had a head. Its featureless cloth face looked back at them from underneath a high-quality long blonde wig that was elegantly styled in soft waves. It didn't have arms and appeared to not have legs underneath its dark pink evening gown, if the sharp indentation at the hips visible under the fabric was any indication. Zachary couldn't help but be impressed with the craftsmanship, especially of the dress itself. The dangling empty sleeves puffed up at the shoulders and curved delicately down into a sweetheart neckline. The dress hugged the mannequin's waist tightly before cascading down around where the legs should be in a dramatic sweep of long fabric.

"Why is it even here?"

"I don't know," Zachary responded, reaching a hand around to the back of the dress and feeling the lining. "It doesn't have a tag. Maybe a former student made it?"

"Let's just get it in the other room."

He complied, picking it up easily and carrying it into the storage unit where he'd placed the boxes. Kylie followed with her share and in a few minutes time they were finished. Zachary was on his way back out to hopefully never return when he realized his friend wasn't with him. He went back to find her staring at the mannequin again, a blank expression on her face.

"Just forget it, Kylie." He reached out to take her hand but stopped when he saw an old white linen sheet on the dust-covered ground. He snatched it up in and shook it open lightly, careful not to send too much dirt into their breathing air.

Kylie held out her hand to stop him. "Don't. Are you trying to give it ghost powers?"

"It's fine, let's just cover up this creepy ass thing and go." He took one last look at the mannequin's blank face before chucking the sheet over its head, effectively covering the offending object from view. Kylie looked over at him apprehensively but he just rolled his eyes and led her back to the stairs, hitting the lights on the way out.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Zachary's dreams were filled with dark tendrils creeping out of the woods, breaking off from a central point and wrapping themselves around trees like intelligent, independently moving shadows. They hummed across the treetops, shaking out birds and filling the skies with dark clouds and leaves that were falling the wrong direction. The humming grew louder as the darkness inched closer to him, slithering between the blades of grass, enveloping everything that it touched. It pooled out from the edge of the tree line, toward him, across the open grass, closing the distance with certainty and grace.

The humming invaded every particle of air between them, filling his thoughts, until the unpleasant screeching of his alarm awakened him.

_Damn, right when it was getting to the good part_. Still, that one was a little more disconcerting than his usual dreams. He reached over and angrily switched off his alarm clock, leaving only the sounds of his white noise machine which was currently emitting the cacophonous screams of the damned.

Maybe he'd have fewer nightmares if he changed the setting to dolphins or something?

He inhaled deeply, feeling woefully underprepared for the day to follow. Today was, at long last, the mid-semester promotion preparation exams, which were intended to let the faculty and students know their progress and what they had to work on before the actual dorm placement tests at the end of the semester. There was usually quite a bit of shuffling around that time, he heard, and students with inconsistent displays of abilities would often forego even unpacking if they knew they would be placed somewhere else in a few months time. The pressure for duel prep students to remain in Obelisk was immense, and Zachary had been irritable and stressed for weeks waiting for today. Fortunately, Obelisks weren't scheduled to take their practical exams until the afternoon — the Slifers needed to be awake and in the duel arena by 5:30 AM, and Ras at 9 AM — so he had time to unwind beforehand.

Struggling to calm his nerves, Zachary took an extra long shower and carefully combed out his shaggy black hair before eating a light brunch, looking over his deck, and making his way to the main building's duel arena. He arrived later than anticipated; it looked like the Obelisk duels were well underway. Two male students he only knew by sight were dueling each other on the center stage platform, while Doctor Crowler looked on with a clipboard and utter dejection across his face. The duel seemed to have devolved into some sort of argument, with neither of them playing cards and their duel disks darkened into standby mode while they shouted at one another.

"THAT'S A LOGICAL FALLACY."

"OH YEAH?" The other yelled back, arms crossed defiantly. "WHICH ONE?"

"I DON'T KNOW."

Zachary shook his head as he took a seat next to Kylie and that Slifer kid Logan was hanging out with now. Those Obelisks were both shoe-ins for having to repeat Basic Trash Talking at this rate. "What's going on?" He asked Kylie.

"They forgot what an ad hominem is," she replied, not taking her eyes off the 'duel.'

"Right," he looked over at the Slifer, Ethan, Evan, who cares. "What are you still doing here? Didn't you duel hours ago?"

The other boy nodded. "I like to watch."

Zachary decided that talking to this person was beyond what he was willing to do today. He took a brief look around for signs of Logan before determining that he bounced before he could watch Kylie play. Apparently, the Ra had a severe phobia of dolls and mannequins and anything else vaguely humanoid that fell into uncanny valley territory, so her chosen archetype always creeped him out. Zachary thought Logan's judgment of someone else's playing style was just stupid. After all, the guy used a Jam Breeding Machine deck that relied heavily on the field spell Wetlands to give his jam tokens a mediocre boost, as well as the equip card Amulet of Ambition. That one pissed off Zachary to the point of refusing to play against him. Logan explained it to him once like he were a slow child, saying that it increased the jam's attack by 500 times the difference in level between it and the enemy monster. That's when Zachary's eyes started to glaze over. He didn't go to duel school for math, that's what the onboard duel disk life counter system was for. Granted, Logan did appear to have hit on something by taking advantage of the student body's aversion to math, considering he won most of his games when his opponent would slam their high-level monster into one of his tokens out of frustration, usually sending their own life points to zero in the process.

The present duel concluded a few minutes later when Doctor Crowler announced there would be a turn time limit implemented. Both boys walked offstage, leaving Crowler to call out the names of the next duelists to take the exam. "Ushio Abiko and Fumio Demura!"

A boy Zachary recognized as Ushio approached the platform and gazed out into the mostly empty bleachers for his opponent. "Fumio Demura," Crowler repeated, looking around the room.

"That's the sixth Obelisk so far today," Kylie whispered. There was a tension in the room that Zachary suddenly became aware of as everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "It's super weird they'd miss an obligatory practice exam, right?"

"I guess."

Crowler pursed his lips together and wrote something down on his clipboard. He looked really stressed, Zachary noted. More so than usual, with his heavy class load and extracurricular responsibilities. "Kylie Tanaka, take over for Demura."

"YES!" Kylie's concerned demeanor vanished immediately as she vaulted over the chest-high wall separating the bleachers from the arena floor and hit the ground running, her half-ponytail bobbing wildly. She bouncily took her place in the center of the arena so she and Ushio could shuffle each other's decks. "Let's get the lead out and start dueling, Ushio! Go go go!"

She practically spun to her place on the opposite side of the arena from her bewildered duel partner, putting her bare left arm behind her and pulling it out from behind her back with a duel disk attached. She slammed her deck into the slot and counted out her opening hand.

Zachary glanced over at the Slifer kid a seat over from him, seeing that he was torn between watching the action and trying to peel apart a fidget spinner with his fingernails. Maybe Zachary wouldn't try interacting with him after all.

Crowler flipped a coin and indicated Ushio would be going first. Zachary barely paid attention to his opening move, opting instead on trying to communicate via ESP to Kylie to _please _take this duel seriously. Oftentimes, she'd get caught up having fun and trying out new tactics, especially when it wasn't appropriate and a hefty part of her grade depended on whether she won, rather than dueling like a proper Obelisk.

"MY TURN!" Kylie drew and played her first Gimmick Puppet. They went on for a few turns, not doing anything to write home or really anywhere about. Neither of them had taken any battle damage until Kylie was able to bring out her Gearspring Spirit monster, making Ushio's Gene-Warped Warwolf's attack 0 with its effect, then Xyz summoning Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings. "Now I equip Mr Strings with Stoic Challenge, which increases his attack by 600 for each Xyz material on my side of the field, and doubles any battle damage you take. Now I attack your castrated Warwolf for 8400 damage! Yay!"

Ushio's lifepoints fell to zero as he hit the arena floor. Zachary couldn't help but smile a little at being able to see Kylie's one-turn-kill in action on someone other than himself. He also hoped that drama queen Ushio's knees hurt from his fall. Who even did that any more?

"Very good, Tanaka, very good," Crowler patted her head. "Can I have Zachary Akiyama and Toma Kimura up next? Come on down for your practice exam."

Zachary's eyes widened. Oh no, not his ex-boyfriend. His eyes shot around the room apprehensively, praying that Toma was playing hooky for the same reason all the other Obelisks were, but was severely disappointed when Toma got up from a seat almost immediately across from him and confidently strode up to the testing area. Zachary took a deep breath and joined him, handing his deck over and feeling his palms sweat slightly. Crap, what if he got sweat all over Toma's cards and it got all weird when he handed them back? The relationship hadn't ended on good terms, this would just be another reason for everyone to hear about how much of a loser he was. Not like they wouldn't see it firsthand.

Toma smirked at him, expertly employing an overhand shuffling technique with Zachary's Chaos Dragons deck. "Let's see if you duel as bad as you kiss," Toma mocked.

"That's privileged information!" Zachary hissed back at him, feeling his face heat up. They took their places and, to Zachary's dismay, he was required to go first. "Um…" he looked down at his opening hand, which consisted purely of high level dragons. _This is fine_, he told himself, Chaos Dragons were designed to get out these monsters by special summoning but… no, that one couldn't be special summoned. Neither could that one. _Oh god what did this one even do?_ He tried to quickly skim the unfamiliar text, not really taking any of it in.

"Today, Zach!"

Zachary flinched; he hated being called that. He didn't even let Toma refer to him that way when they were still in the honeymoon phase of their short-lived relationship. _Okay, just think. Why the hell did so many of these require monsters in the graveyard?_ "I end my turn," he ground out, knowing full well Remedial Deck Building was in his near future.

Titters of laughter filled the room as Toma played Totem Dragon, then the spell card Double Summon, allowing him to summon an eight star dragon. He nailed Zachary with his attack, bringing his life points down to only one thousand. He drew. Damage Condenser. Where was this last turn? He set the trap card anyway, knowing that he wouldn't survive the hit it would take to actually use it. Again, laughter followed the end of his turn and continued all the way through his thorough defeat. This was just perfect. His only saving grace was that this wasn't the actual dorm placement exam, otherwise he would have been shunted down to Slifer before his duel disk even deactivated.

Toma surprisingly had the decency not to openly gloat to Zachary — he didn't need to — knowing full well that this loss would sting a lot more than any barbed comments he could possibly make. The two of them shook hands and parted ways, Zachary unable to raise his eyes from the floor until he was safely back to his seat in the bleachers next to the only person at this school who he felt like he could face right now.

He removed his duel disk from his arm and plunked it onto the floor by his feet, burying his face in his hands. Maybe he didn't belong in Obelisk after all. No one else had to work as hard as he did at just being passable at Duel Monsters. If he didn't go to duel prep, would he have even passed his entrance exams? He felt tears coming on when a comforting hand touched his arm.

"You can only get better from here," Kylie's voice said softly.

Zachary squeezed his eyes shut behind his hands.

"I think you did the right thing," the Slifer kid chimed in unhelpfully. Zachary removed his hands from his face to scowl at him. The other boy smiled vaguely, waving his hand in the direction of Toma across the room. "Duelists are always flexing on each other. You bravely set yourself up as the logical conclusion that there's someone at the bottom who can flex to none."

"I don't like you."

"I appreciated the apolitical message you were making in not playing any monsters," the Slifer continued. "You were resisting the Academy's indoctrination, proving to Seto Kaiba that just because he owns the means of production he can't influence your convictions. It was inspirational seeing your protest live. Before the fake news media covered it and twisted it to fit into their respective narratives, that is."

Zachary narrowed his eyes. There was no way in hell he was spending another minute with this freak. "Kylie, do you still have that shank?"

"Be nice," she reprimanded. "Hey, Evan and I are going to the shop in a little bit to buy some booster packs. Wanna come?"

He glanced over at the Slifer. "No thanks. I want to be alone for a while, but I'll see you tonight, okay?" Without another word, he collected his belongings and headed out the nearest exit.


End file.
